I Spit on your Grave (2010)
Written By: SP
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Steven R. Monroe
Producer: Lisa M. Hansen, Paul Hertzberg
Screenwriter: Stuart Morse
Date Released: May 1, 2010
Cast:
Sarah Butler as Jennifer, a writer
Jeff Branson as Johnny
Daniel Franzese as Stanley
Rodney Eastman as Andy
Chad Lindberg as Matthew
Rating = 2.5/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
I Spit on Your Grave (2010) begins with a novelist by the name of Jennifer Hills travelling to the outskirts of a secluded town where she is to stay in an isolated cabin in order to further her writing. Having gotten lost along the way, Jennifer stops at the local gas station for directions. One of the men working attempts to flirt with the attractive young lady but only suffers humiliation after she shuns his attempts. With the town being so small, the group of male friends from the gas station don’t have any trouble finding out where Jennifer is staying. Being left alone with no one to help her, the group of men rape Jennifer and leave. The following morning, she stumbles upon the local town sheriff. Relieved and thinking that she has found a safe haven in the hands of the sheriff, to her unfortunate luck, the group of men reappear and instead of helping the girl, the sheriff joins in on the rape.
Gore Factor
An aspect that makes this film stand out from the rest in its genre is the use of gore and torture in a symbolic way. Rather than simply focusing on the sheer brutality of the deaths, the metaphoric value of each act takes this film to the next level. Jennifer makes sure to kill each of the five men that raped her in a way that reflects their characters and the way in which they treated her. Without spoiling the death scenes with full detail, an example of a symbolic death involves a voyeur’s most prized possession, his eyes. Not only were the deaths creative and intellectually stimulating, but they were also quite gruesome. Brutal and painful deaths that any gorehound would enjoy take up the last third of the film’s running time.
The Grave Review
I Spit on Your Grave (2010) is an American rape and revenge horror film released in 2010, starring Sarah Butler as the rape victim. It was directed by Steven R. Monroe and has a running time of 108 minutes. The film is a modern remake of the original I Spit on Your Grave, a cult film that was released in 1978 and directed by Meir Zarchi. The release of the original film came with much controversy. Having been released in a more prudish and innocent era (i.e. the 70s), a film with its central theme revolving around rape was bound to draw out negative criticism. Not only was it controversial in nature, but the film was so frowned upon that it received a place on the “video nasty” list, a colloquial term used to refer to a number of cassette films that were criticized for their obscene and drastically violent content.
What makes the 1978 version of this film so particularly disturbing is the length of the gang rape scenes. Running for a whopping total of 30 minutes (nearly a third of the movie!), many viewers found this directorial decision to be quite unnecessary and outright vexing. As for the modern remake of the film, the rape scenes, albeit not enjoyable to watch, is much less elaborate when comparing the lengths of each.
Not being the biggest fan of rape and revenge films in general, I can personally say that this film was quite an enjoyable and entertaining watch. It was well made with decent acting for the most part. Rape scenes in general aren’t the most pleasing thing to watch and, in my opinion, both rape scenes were a bit too elaborated for my liking. However, the brutal deaths were very satisfying and countered this effect. Although extremely exaggerated (how can an one-hundred and ten-pound woman manipulate the bodies of five men three times her size?), the thoughtfulness that was put into each of the five deaths was very well-done.
Overall, the movie has lived up to its genre of revenge movies. Even if you are into the rape and revenge genre, this movie is a difficult watch.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives I Spit on Your Grave (2010) two and one-half graves out of five graves.
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